The suit accuses the physician and hospital of medical malpractice

Receive the latest sports updates in your inbox

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez talks during a news conference before the Yankees play the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field in Chicago on Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Cherney)

Updated at 3:53 PM EDT on Saturday, Oct 5, 2013

Alex Rodriguez expanded his assault on the baseball establishment with a lawsuit accusing the Yankees team physician and a New York City hospital of mishandling his medical care during the 2012 AL playoffs.

In a suit filed late Friday in New York Supreme Court in the Bronx, lawyers for Rodriguez say he was given an MRI on Oct. 11, 2012, that revealed an injury to his left hip joint. The suit said that Yankees physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad did not inform him of the tear and cleared him to continue playing, and accused them of medical malpractice.

As a result, the suit claims, Rodriguez further injured himself and also "sustained great pain, agony, injury, suffering, disability, hospitalization, as well as mental anguish and emotional distress." The suit also names New York-Presbyterian Hospital as a defendant.

"We are not commenting due to pending litigation," hospital spokeswoman Myrna Manners said Saturday.

Ahmad did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment.

The hospital and Ahmad may claim that the proper forum for Rodriguez's complaint is either Workman's Compensation or the grievance process of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

The union is attempting to overturn the 211-game suspension given to Rodriguez by MLB on Aug. 5 for alleged violations of its drug agreement and labor contract. The penalty was stayed pending a grievance filed by the union, and a hearing began Monday before arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who is chairman of the three-man arbitration panel that includes a representative of management and the union. Barring a settlement, a decision is not expected until winter.

Also Saturday, The New York Times reported on its website that Rodriguez's lawyers at Reed Smith sent a letter to the players' association General Counsel David Prouty on Aug. 22 asking that a union lawyer be replaced as his representative in the grievance by one of his personal attorneys. The lawyers also criticized union head Michael Weiner, who is battling a brain tumor, for comments he made about the case.

Rodriguez hit .120 (3 for 25) with no RBIs during the 2012 postseason, then had left hip surgery in January that kept him from rejoining the Yankees until August.

One of Rodriguez's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, said in August that the Yankees "put him out there in that condition when he shouldn't have even been walking, much less playing baseball."

The Yankees maintain that Rodriguez had been complaining at the time only of a problem with his right hip, not the left one. Rodriguez had right hip surgery in 2009.

Both suits came during the first week of hearings on a players' association grievance seeking to overturn the suspension. Thirteen other players accepted suspensions this summer, including former NL MVP Ryan Braun, who was suspended for Milwaukee's final 65 games of the regular season.

The August letter from Rodriguez's lawyers to the players' association accused the union of failing to "fairly represent his interests" and said it "made matters worse by failing to protest MLB's thuggish tactics in its investigation."

A-Rod's lawyers were critical of Weiner for saying in an XM Radio interview in August that he advised Rodriguez to accept a suspension of a certain length — less than MLB was willing to settle for. They said in the letter that Weiner's statements could "irretrievably corrupt the arbitration process" and "are clearly inconsistent with the MLBPA's duty to fairly and ardently represent Mr. Rodriguez."